Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Question: We recently heard the term ‘vendor lock-in’ and thought it sounded rather ominous. What exactly does it mean? Is it something we should be concerned about?

North Dakota Subscriber

Answer: You’re right — it is ominous. When you can’t access other electronic health record (EHR) vendors’ products without paying an exorbitant cost to get out of your current situation, that is considered an EHR vendor lock-in. And more importantly, those kinds of restrictive practices can have dire consequences if you need to share information with another covered healthcare provider while caring for a patient.

Some EHR vendors can have strict data sharing clauses that prevent your practice from integration with other systems and circumvent interoperability.

That’s why it’s always a good idea to do a background check on your EHR vendor and look into proprietary tactics that may prevent you from using other products. Review your EHR contracts before implementation to avoid this problem later on.